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John V. Hansen's blogen-usThu, 22 Feb 2018 02:11:42 -0700Mon, 28 Aug 2017 14:29:00 -0700BlogCFChttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssno-reply@johnvhansen.comno-reply@johnvhansen.comno-reply@johnvhansen.comJohn's blog - www.johnvhansen.comhttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm
noLincoln Child treks through foreboding Adirondacks in brisk ‘Full Wolf Moon’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/8/28/Lincoln-Child-treks-through-foreboding-Adirondacks-in-brisk-Full-Wolf-Moon
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Lincoln Child has already shown his skills in the "sense of place" adventure genre with the likes of "Deep Storm" (the ocean floor), "Terminal Freeze" (the Alaskan tundra) and "The Third Gate" (the swamps of northeast Africa), and he does it again with <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/child/fullwolfmoon/" target="_blank">"Full Wolf Moon"</a> (May, hardcover), set in New York's Adirondack Mountains and the surrounding woods. His enigmalogist lead character, Jeremy Logan, has been somewhat slow to develop, but that changes here in a more personal yarn.
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"Full Wolf Moon" is ideal for people who like to travel to places through literature but are timid about actually going there. Child paints the Adirondacks as a place where the thick trees turn day into night, where the roads become cracked and pitted as they get more remote, where some woods off the beaten path have never been touched by a human, and where the small population centers harbor long-held suspicions of their neighbors. (In an author's note at the end, Child admits that he took liberties with the real place, but this won't bother you unless you've been there and are looking for connections.)
Although Logan has conversations with folks such as his old forest ranger friend Jessup and his new woodsman/poet pal Albright, a lot of the book takes place inside his head, allowing the reader to feel a bond with him. "It was odd," Logan thinks on page 57, "his job as an enigmalogist had taken him to far more remote places in the past – Alaska's Federal Wildlife Zone, hundreds of miles north of the Arctic Circle; the vast swampy wasteland south of Egypt known as the Suud – and yet none of these had filled him with the kind of vague anxiety that he felt now."
Logan is staying at an artists' retreat, finishing up a monograph (his day job is as a history teacher at Yale), and this serves as a safe home base from which he ventures out to the surrounding small towns and frightening forest.
Further emphasizing "Full Wolf Moon's" removal from the beaten path is the mysterious Blakeney compound that's practically hidden in the thick forest. At first blush, they call to mind the inbred Peacock family from the infamous "X-Files" episode "Home." On his first visit, Logan is greeted with the barrel of a shotgun. The Blakeney clan has been on the land for so long that New York hasn't even tried to assess their land and levy property taxes; if even the state is scared, you know this family isn't to be taken lightly.
The author delivers various other suspects and red herrings in this murder mystery, as a few hikers have been mauled. It's probably not much of a spoiler to reveal that this is a werewolf novel, although in the fashion we've come to expect from Child (and his writing partner Douglas Preston), there's enough engaging pseudo-science poured on top of the lore to make one mull the possibilities. I find it amusing that Child borrows (on purpose or coincidentally, I don't know) the idea from the "Buffy"-verse that a werewolf is susceptible to the full moon for three days – including the days before and after the true full moon. Also amusing is his nod to the creature from "Relic," as victims-to-be notice a "goatish" odor before being attacked.
Clocking in at a mere 241 pages, "Full Wolf Moon" still gives readers their "money's worth," although there's a danger that you'll polish it off in just a couple sittings and be hungry for the next Child novel. Many chapters end on such intriguing notes that it takes extreme willpower to not keep going into the next brisk chapter. While not a long novel – and not wholly original with its werewolf tale – it seems like this is a pivotal novel for Logan, and I think some supporting players might turn up later. The thing you'll remember most, though, are those dark and scary Adirondack woods.
Preston/ChildBooksMon, 28 Aug 2017 14:29:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/8/28/Lincoln-Child-treks-through-foreboding-Adirondacks-in-brisk-Full-Wolf-MoonPreston’s ‘Lost City of the Monkey God’ a gripping chronicle of archaeology, historyhttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/3/27/Prestons-Lost-City-of-the-Monkey-God-a-gripping-chronicle-of-archaeology-history
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<a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/preston/monkeygod/" target="_blank">"The Lost City of the Monkey God"</a> (January, hardcover) looks from its cover like the latest Douglas Preston thriller, perhaps along the lines of "The Codex," something about tromping through Central America in search of a lost city. But that little notation "A True Story" isn't a "Fargo"-style joke. "Lost City" is a work of journalism chronicling the discovery of a pre-Columbian city – deserted and left to jungle encroachment 500 years ago – in the 21st century.
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There is some controversy about the word "discovery" – outlined in this book – in that the people of Honduras and many archeologists, looters and gold-prospectors have long known about the city, located in the Mosquitia region of Honduras. Indeed, it's a combination of myths about the Lost City of the Monkey God -- also known as the White City – and real writings and maps that lead to the joint American/Honduran archaeology expedition in this book. (Also on the trip is the TV crew making the 2015 "National Geographic Explorer" episode "Legend of the Monkey God.") However, it's also clear that the precise location of the city (in fact, two cities that are candidates to fit the myth) could only be pinpointed thanks to the relatively new technology of lidar (laser imaging).
The book includes some pages of photographs in the middle, which mostly seem to show jungle. That's a little disappointing, but it also starkly illustrates the value of lidar and the expertise of archaeologists who can spot things that aren't obvious to a layman. A picture is generally worth a thousand words, but when those pictures are just shrouds of jungle, the opposite holds true.
I didn't know exactly what I was getting into, but I enjoyed the journey – and I was thrilled that I was a reader, not a participant. In journalistic style, Preston (whose other nonfiction highlights include "The Monster of Florence" and "Jennie") writes about his encounters with deadly fer-de-lance snakes, biting sand flies and screeching howler monkeys. These animals don't behave cautiously around humans, because they've never seen one before – nor had a half-millennium of their ancestors. Preston, known for the Agent Pendergast and Gideon Crew thrillers co-written with Lincoln Child, also employs novelist's prose, like when the character of a beautiful river turns ominous.
The book takes a surprising turn about midway when Preston chronicles his post-expedition battle with leishmaniasis, a condition that came from sand fly bites in Mosquitia. It's scarier than anything I've read in a Preston thriller. The author recounts his struggle to find treatment, the horrors of the treatment itself, and in a parenthetical notation, the fact that his leishmaniasis seems to have returned at the time of the writing. To top it off, he notes that he's LUCKY to be a First World citizen with leish; Third World inhabitants have no access to treatment.
"Lost City" isn't a thrilling page-turner like Preston's novels; it's more of a cerebral pursuit, but it's certainly not homework. In addition to providing me with a fun trivia answer (bananas are annually the best-selling item at Walmart), the book vastly increased my knowledge of lidar, the Central American jungle, the history and current government of Honduras, the logistics of mounting and surviving expeditions, and the meeting of the Old and New Worlds -- but most of all, the spread of disease.
Although the ultimate reason for the disappearance of the White City is almost certainly the Old World invasion of smallpox and other horrors, Preston strings out the "mystery" effectively and with fascinating historical insights.
History holds plenty of lessons about empire-building, war and debt that the modern world could stand to learn from, but "Lost City" harrowingly puts disease at the top of my list of concerns (at least until another distraction comes along). It's a scary final thought to top off "Lost City's" broader, more spiritual, point: Even in the 21st century, the Earth holds mysteries.
Preston/ChildBooksMon, 27 Mar 2017 21:43:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/3/27/Prestons-Lost-City-of-the-Monkey-God-a-gripping-chronicle-of-archaeology-history‘The Obsidian Chamber’ is P&C’s craziest ride, but it’s also a key Constance novelhttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/3/13/The-Obsidian-Chamber-is-PCs-craziest-ride-but-its-also-a-key-Constance-novel
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For the first 100 pages of <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/obsidianchamber/" target="_blank">"The Obsidian Chamber"</a> (October 2016, hardcover), Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's 16th Agent Pendergast novel, one word kept popping into my head: "crazy." In almost a parody of their most credulity-pushing excesses from the Gideon Crew books, Pendergast's butler Proctor chases Constance and her kidnapper all over the globe. In a matter of mere days, he's trekking across the Kalahari Desert in Africa and fighting off lions. The prose has a numb, relentless quality, but it's still insane.
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I breathed a sigh of relief as "The Obsidian Chamber" settles down into a more recognizable Pendergast novel, except with the mysteries playing out on an unusually personal level, with unorthodox points-of-view allowing for surprising insights into our favorite characters. In the back of my mind, I knew the authors had to resolve that bizarre Proctor prologue, but I didn't totally care if they forgot about it.
There's no way to talk further about this book without revealing some twists, so I'll put a SPOILER WARNING here.
This is the best novel so far about Constance Greene, Pendergast's ward who looks 20-something but is a century older. Interestingly, we get insight into her mindset through a backdoor. Diogenes, Aloysius Pendergast's brother who was supposedly killed off in "The Book of the Dead," is back; we suspected as much from hints in "Crimson Shore." He courts Constance, his former lover whom he was merely using for the sake of revenge on Aloysius. But he claims to truly love her now. In a twist, she submits to his advances.
The cool thing about how P&C write this relationship is that it's mostly from Diogenes' perspective, so we know he really has changed and that he does indeed love Constance. Constance is a cipher, so readers (particularly male readers) feel a kinship with Diogenes as he tries to figure out the mystery of what this woman actually feels for him. This is despite the fact that Diogenes is undeniably the villain of the series, having logged a massive murder count; he adds to it even in this book, and that's to say nothing of the mortal danger he puts Proctor in, just for the sake of getting him out of the way.
Even less of a surprise than Diogenes' resurrection is that of Pendergast himself. Again keeping things fresh with an unorthodox POV, we follow the seafaring ransom-seekers who pulled the agent from the Atlantic Ocean, where he was left drifting at the end of "Crimson Shore." We also get the FBI's perspective – particularly that of Pendergast's former Army mate, Longstreet -- as it seeks to retrieve our main character.
Although not many pages are devoted to a possible Pendergast-Constance romance, the final pages advance this thread, which was introduced in "Crimson Shore." Pendergast is in his 40s and Constance is by appearance in her 20s – but actually in her 140s; oddly, while Pendergast cares little for societal propriety as an investigator, propriety keeps him from a romance with his ward. I have no clue if P&C will bring them together in a future book, but it's something to keep us guessing.
Possibly the most interesting character, though, is Flavia (again, a "Crimson Shore" holdover, although you'd be forgiven if you forgot about her). She sees Diogenes as her soulmate in sociopathy. If the axiom that "If you don't see a dead body, the character is still alive" holds true, we'll see her again, and I'm hoping the Flavia-Diogenes story has more meat on its bones.
The craziness of those first 100 pages does pop up again as the book moves forward, particularly when Diogenes uses one of his several carefully cultivated fake identities to both administer lethal drugs to a Florida death-row inmate AND to perform the autopsy (which allows him to extract a part of the spinal column crucial to the formula that stabilizes Constance's aging, a nod to the monster's need for hypothalamus glands back in "Relic").
"The Obsidian Chamber" doesn't have quite as much of a sense of place as other P&C books, largely because there's so much globe-hopping, but Diogenes' island in the Florida Keys makes for a beautiful home base for the late-stage action. The titular structure doesn't play as big a part as one would think, although it is the site of one notably racy scene.
Ultimately, "The Obsidian Chamber" stretches its tether to reality further than any previous Pendergast book. But at the same time, it's one of the elite character-oriented tomes in the series, providing insight and background information into Pendergast, Constance and Diogenes. It ends on a period, whereas "Crimson Shore" ended on an ellipses, but I suspect the relationships among these three characters will be revisited, possibly as soon as the next book.
Preston/ChildBooksMon, 13 Mar 2017 17:06:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/3/13/The-Obsidian-Chamber-is-PCs-craziest-ride-but-its-also-a-key-Constance-novel‘Beyond the Ice Limit’ blends familiar sci-fi themes into a fun, but too shallow, ridehttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/2/21/Beyond-the-Ice-Limit-blends-familiar-scifi-themes-into-a-fun-but-too-shallow-ride
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After receiving "many thousands" of letters and emails asking for a sequel to "The Ice Limit" (2000) (as they recount in an author's note), Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child finally go <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/beyondtheicelimit/" target="_blank">"Beyond the Ice Limit"</a> (May 2016, hardcover; now in paperback). As those readers sensed, and as the authors realize in this 374-page novel, there is more story to tell – and it's a good one that stirs up a lot of sci-fi thoughts and ideas.
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Not a groundbreaking novel ("The Abyss," "Sphere," "2001," "Alien," "Virus" and "Independence Day: Resurgence" all came to mind as various themes and concepts popped up), "Beyond the Ice Limit" is still an expertly crafted thriller that mixes various old ideas in a way that doesn't feel like a lazy rip-off. Somehow the authors put the fate of the world at stake and have a giant ocean vessel descend into chaos without the story becoming overblown or hard to follow.
The main character is somewhat reluctant adventurer Gideon Crew, who is coming off the excellent "The Lost Island." But Eli Glinn, his billionaire handler of sorts who appeared in the three previous Crew novels plus the original "Ice Limit," is the most interesting character. His arrogance led to the deaths of more than 100 people on that first mission to load and transport a massive meteorite from the tip of South America. Now that same arrogance is the driving force for an unselfish endeavor: to save humanity. Like John Hammond in the "Jurassic Park" series, his personality hasn't changed even if his goals have become less self-centered: He still uses people to achieve his ends.
Set five years after "The Ice Limit," "Beyond" is set in the present day. Crew members watching "Game of Thrones" on the massive ship's multiple-month journey from New York to the Antarctic Ice Limit – where the icebergs calve during the spring (November in the Southern Hemisphere) – attest to this, meaning that the original novel was set in about 2011. I haven't re-read it to see if that timeline holds up. (However, take heart that it's not necessary to re-read "The Ice Limit" in order to understand what's happening in this book. The authors provide plenty of flashbacks to refresh our memories and perhaps even clarify what happened. I remember liking "The Ice Limit," but also being confused about the events in the final act.)
Now knowing that the meteorite is an alien entity, Glinn aims to study it and, if necessary, destroy it before it can wipe out humanity. While Preston and Child for a long time felt the revelation of the meteorite's nature was a tidy ending to "The Ice Limit" (there was "only one possible outcome" after the final page, they thought) the sequel shows this concept is worth digging into further. Unfortunately, they only scratch the surface of the most interesting element: The tree-like entity on the ocean floor – which a crew member dubs "the Baobab" – is a parasite that absorbs brains to become its own brains.
When a character becomes a victim of the Baobab, Gideon and meteorite hunter McFarlane – who returns from "The Ice Limit" (as does that OTHER eccentric billionaire, Palmer Lloyd) – briefly reflect on the existential horror of being a disembodied brain. But we never get the victim's perspective. The Bib Fortuna arc in "Star Wars: Tales from Jabba's Palace" and the "X-Wing" comics – where he becomes disembodied by the b'omarr monks – remains among the best writing on this bizarre concept.
Preston and Child deliver some engaging characters. Naturally – as he is somewhat of a James Bond update – Gideon hits it off with submarine chief Alex, who of course is "about 35 and stunningly attractive, with a heart-shaped face and agate-colored eyes." The most entertaining character is tech expert Prothero, a smarter and more abrasive version of Nedry from "Jurassic Park." Using his library of blue whale sounds, he's able to decipher the Baobab's communications. This provides a tense thrill similar to the alien-message translation scenes in "Event Horizon," last year's "Arrival" and other sci-fi works.
However, it doesn't ultimately add anything to the genre of "What is alien life like?," just as the disembodied brain idea only scratches the surface. And "Beyond" includes other moments that hint at intriguing questions only to be quickly solved or shelved. For example, the brain of the victim briefly seems to be communicating with Gideon; is it just an echo, like the deadly plants in "The Ruins," or is it a true communication? The alien entity might be a machine, or it might be a silicon-based lifeform, like in the "X-Files" episode "Firewalker." What is the line between organic and machine? The Baobab's main brain is an alien victim from far away. What's its story? Preston and Child, in keeping with the concept of the Crew novels, write a thriller rather than a sci-fi think piece.
Because the action and some emotional scenes (Glinn finding his former lover's corpse, for example) are so well-written, I can't dismiss "Beyond the Ice Limit." It's a worthy sequel to "The Ice Limit," which I'll have to re-read at some point. But I am slightly disappointed that Preston and Child don't go as deep as they could have into these classic sci-fi themes. Maybe that's unfair; after all, if they weren't inspired to explore these threads further, forcing themselves to do so wouldn't necessarily lead to a better novel. Maybe it's a case where they need another 16 years and another thousand emails to stew over what they've created, and we'll eventually get an "Ice Limit 3."
Preston/ChildBooksTue, 21 Feb 2017 00:08:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/2/21/Beyond-the-Ice-Limit-blends-familiar-scifi-themes-into-a-fun-but-too-shallow-ridePreston & Child explore salt marshes, mudflats and lighthouses in ‘Crimson Shore’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/2/18/Preston--Child-explore-salt-marshes-mudflats-and-lighthouses-in-Crimson-Shore
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<a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/crimsonshore/Crimson-Shore;art526,569" target="_blank">"Crimson Shore"</a> (November 2015 hardcover; now in paperback) is in many ways a classic standalone Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child potboiler, but it also has character, plot and thematic elements that push the Agent Pendergast series forward. The first thing readers will notice when delving into this 15th Pendergast novel is the sense of place, which isn't unusual, although this particular location is.
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Although the authors have thoroughly explored New York City, and have ducked into Maine (Preston's "Impact") and Rhode Island (Child's "The Forgotten Room") for solo works, "Crimson Shore" is the first of their catalog set in Preston's home state of Massachusetts. The authors invent the town of Exmouth, on the northeastern coast – and it will eventually become clear why they were hesitant to set these events in a real town.
But the salt marshes, mud flats and lighthouses are real enough, as the authors do their thing of exploring a place on the globe that feels primitive and frightening even in this globalized age. I found the sequences of Pendergast and other investigators navigating the marshes – which range from wadeable to deadly depending on the level of the tides – to be a particularly fresh geographic challenge. This is one of those settings where you think: "I wouldn't want to live there – or even necessarily visit – but I love visiting it in a book."
The mystery starts intriguingly enough with the theft of a prized wine collection from the cellar of Percival Lake, a stone sculptor who lives in the old lighthouse keeper's residence. Needless to say, the mystery soon thickens beyond the stolen wine. It ends up dating into centuries past and involving a British ship lost at sea, Salem witches and demonic lore.
Along with "Crimson Shore's" delicious sense of place, Pendergast is in comfortingly fine form. He plays the lazy and corrupt Exmouth police chief like a fiddle, shows the chef at the local restaurant how to properly prepare fish, and pontificates on wine for enough pages that I briefly wondered if I picked up "Sideways" by accident.
His ageless ward, Constance Greene, is not merely along for the ride, but – building on the active heroism she displayed at the end of "Blue Labyrinth" -- she continues to develop. She's the audience surrogate who observes Pendergast entertainingly being Pendergast, but she is also learning tricks of the trade. In "Crimson Shore," Constance – who is still an old soul learning about the modern world – realizes that claiming she is Amish works to brush away the curiosity of people she meets. Also, she realizes that simply pretending to showing interest in someone – particularly young males – makes them more willing to share information.
Two elements of "Crimson Shore" will be controversial to some readers. First, the authors hint at a romantic relationship between Pendergast and Constance. Like the old Mulder-Scully debate, some people will reject it out of hand because they like their guardian/ward relationship just fine, thank you. I'm willing to be open minded; the awkwardness of the post-wine-drinking scene in the hotel room is properly pitched. And recall that Constance did have a romance with Aloysius' evil brother Diogenes, so surely she deserves a good man instead. Also, while she's physically in her 20s, she's actually over a century old, so the standard societal rules might not apply.
Secondly, "Crimson Shore" very nearly has supernatural elements. The main mystery wraps up about two-thirds of the way through this 337-pager, and then we get an extra layer to the story that Pendergast had overlooked. The monstrous antagonist, whose savagery leads to the type of "grotesque tableaus" we've come to expect from P&C's horror writing, has similarities to those in "Relic" and "Still Life With Crows" – horrific, but with an element of humanity that gives us pause. I admire the way the authors tiptoe into the supernatural yet provide a barely plausible scientific explanation for how a human being could have a dog face and a tail.
An even more supernatural element comes when Pendergast essentially flow-walks (to borrow a "Star Wars" EU term) back in time to figure out the shipwreck mystery. I feel like he did this in at least one previous book. Again, this is barely plausible, asking us to pause before we label it "supernatural fiction" rather than "science fiction."
Just as the third act adds a layer beyond what we saw in the first two acts, the final pages of "Crimson Shore" suggest there is even more going on. But that's deferred until the 16th Pendergast novel, "The Obsidian Chamber," which came out in October 2016.
Preston/ChildBooksSat, 18 Feb 2017 01:22:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2017/2/18/Preston--Child-explore-salt-marshes-mudflats-and-lighthouses-in-Crimson-ShoreLincoln Child explores weird corners of science in ‘The Forgotten Room’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2015/6/9/Lincoln-Child-explores-weird-corners-of-science-in-The-Forgotten-Room
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It took several Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child novels for Pendergast to become an icon, so it's no wonder that the other ongoing characters in the authors' works are taking a while to build into something. The duo is starting to make headway with Gideon Crew through three novels, and now Child is making progress with Professor Jeremy Logan in Logan's third novel (and Child's sixth solo book), <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/child/forgottenroom/" target="_blank">"The Forgotten Room"</a> (May, hardcover), a rather light and breezy effort compared to most of his books.
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Logan is an enigmalogist – a ghost hunter, in layman's terms – but Child's solo books tend to veer toward traditional roads of science (or at least sci-fi). Logan's second appearance, "The Third Gate," was Child's best book, but because of the great Nile River-based setting, not because of Logan or his ghost hunting. In "The Forgotten Room," Logan is called in to Lux -- a Newport, R.I., think tank he used to work at -- to investigate a suicide where the normally sane fellow Willard Strachey snapped and decapitated himself with a heavy window.
After the expected scenes of the think tank's scientists scoffing at Logan's field of expertise, Logan begins investigating, and the answers seem to be more rooted in science than the supernatural. It's as if Child is intrigued by the idea of a ghost hunter as a main character, but his personal interests send his yarns in the direction of science, albeit of the weird variety.
Child touches upon the idea of synesthesia – where one's senses get mixed up, so you can taste colors, feel sounds, etc. – and tries to make music spooky. The idea of scary music doesn't quite work in book form, although it would translate to film, I'm sure.
Lux offers up delicious architectural creepiness in the vein of the New York Museum of Natural History (a favorite locale in the Pendergast books). While the think-tank residents live and work in the East Wing, Strachey had been renovating the West Wing, which had been abandoned for decades due to the residents getting tired of the bizarre lack of hallways, meaning each room had to be accessed by going through other rooms. (I assume the building violated the fire code, too.)
Aside from brief visits to Newport, which Child paints as a beautiful seaside town, all the action takes place at Lux. So this isn't a geographic smorgasbord like "The Third Gate." Logan (who debuted in "Deep Storm") is gradually becoming a likable character, even if he continues to venture outside his field of expertise.
"The Forgotten Room" is a simple, 290-page Child novel that ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack among his work – a notch better than "Death Match" and "Terminal Freeze," but not as evocative as "Utopia," "Deep Storm" or "The Third Gate." Child is on a pattern where his odd-numbered books are great and his even-numbered books are merely good. Still, I gotta give him major credit for that title: You want to know what's in that room, don't you?
Preston/ChildBooksTue, 09 Jun 2015 12:14:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2015/6/9/Lincoln-Child-explores-weird-corners-of-science-in-The-Forgotten-Room‘Blue Labyrinth’ blends classic museum horror with fascinating new localeshttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2015/6/5/Blue-Labyrinth-blends-classic-museum-horror-with-fascinating-new-locales
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For their 14th Pendergast novel, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child do more than merely pay lip service to the evocative location that put them on the map with "Relic" nearly two decades ago. Margo Green, haunted by the events of "Relic" and "Reliquary" – and even more so, "Dance of Death" -- is once again stalked through the bowels of the New York Museum of Natural History in <a href=" http://www.prestonchild.com/books/bluelabyrinth/" target="_blank">"Blue Labyrinth"</a> (November 2014, hardcover).
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I don't think I'll ever get tired of scenes of Preston and Child's protagonists exploring dim, musty rooms filled with rare botanicals, disinterred skeletons and jars of whale eyeballs – even if one action scene of Margo climbing on T-rex and triceratops skeletons is a bit too on-point in this year of "Jurassic World."
But as is increasingly the case in P&C novels, not all of the action takes place in the museum. The most evocative new setting in "Blue Labyrinth" is a ghost town on the shores of the Salton Sea in southern California. Although the authors take some liberties with the geographical reality of the area, their descriptions nonetheless sent me to the Internet to look up this fascinating inland lake. The Salton Sea was accidentally created when a manmade dam broke in the early 20th century, then it became a hotbed for beachgoers, fishermen and vacationers at midcentury before increasing salt levels led to an economic bust – and not quite full-on ghost towns, but close enough to inspire the abandoned luxury hotel described in the book.
Our favorite FBI agent's investigations also take him to a harrowing, ungoverned city within the city of Rio de Janeiro. In a classic Pendergast moment, he goes off on a rant against a traffic cop.
"Blue Labyrinth" is the best novel so far for Pendergast's ward Constance Greene, who – like Nestor Carbonell's character on "Lost" – never ages. With Pendergast struck ill, Constance joins scientist Margo and NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta as a hero of the piece. Another fun place to explore in P&C novels is the bowels of Pendergast's Riverside Drive mansion, and Constance finds some deliciously grisly weapons in the experimental labs of Enoch Leng to use on her enemies.
Pendergast's family tree is in danger of becoming comically convoluted, as Alban Pendergast – Aloysius' bad son, as opposed to the good son Tristram – is in many ways a replacement for Aloysius' late, unlamented brother Diogenes. But "Blue Labyrinth" does bravely address an issue that the authors could have left untouched without much backlash: For all of Pendergast's heroism and good deeds, his personal fortune and high standard of living was made possible by his ancestors' unsavory means of gaining wealth. The villain's revenge scheme, which dates back through the generations, forces Pendergast to own up to this reality.
For P&C scholars, "Blue Labyrinth" has some juicy tidbits. It reveals that the novels have not taken place in real time; it's maybe 10 or 15 years since "Relic," not a full 20 years. And Pendergast accepts a salary of $1 a year from the FBI just to keep things official (I'm not sure how that doesn't violate federal minimum wage laws, though), and he basically assigns himself to cases and taps into his own wealth to cover expenses. We already kind of knew that, but the authors clarify the situation here.
While the scheme by Pendergast's opponent is almost hilariously complex, "Blue Labyrinth" works thanks to the settings and character growth. While I doubt P&C intend to kill off Pendergast anytime soon, this novel proves that Constance could work as a main character too.
Preston/ChildBooksFri, 05 Jun 2015 00:36:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2015/6/5/Blue-Labyrinth-blends-classic-museum-horror-with-fascinating-new-localesGideon Crew series kicks into high gear with ‘The Lost Island’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2014/11/11/Gideon-Crew-series-kicks-into-high-gear-with-The-Lost-Island
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I'll probably always be more partial toward the mystery-oriented Pendergast series than the action-leaning Gideon Crew series, but Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child step up their game in a big way with the third Crew entry, <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/lostisland/The-Lost-Island-A-Gideon-Crew-Novel;art502,546" target="_blank">"The Lost Island"</a> (August, hardcover). And it looks like there's more good stuff to come in this series.
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The first two entries, "Gideon's Sword" (2011) and "Gideon's Corpse" (2012), had some over-the-top action sequences, with Gideon covering huge swaths of the globe in short periods of time. The first book reminded me of James Bond, and the second called to mind "24" – they were well-done for what they were, but they weren't totally my thing. Also, I didn't completely warm up to Gideon, a terminally ill former art thief now working on a case-by-case basis with entrepreneurial magnate Eli Glinn. But while keeping Gideon and Glinn and action sequences prominent, "The Lost Island" mixes in the globetrotting we often see in the authors' solo work and a science-based riddle that calls to mind the Pendergast classic "Still Life with Crows" (2003).
The geographical point of interest here is the Caribbean Sea, notably the drug-runner-populated coasts and volcanic islands along Columbia and Nicaragua. The historical point of interest is the notion that Christopher Columbus and the other folks from our elementary-school textbooks were not the first Europeans to discover the New World. Rather, the authors posit that Homer's "Odyssey" was not a fantasy yarn, but rather an account of the discovery of one-eyed creatures and healing lotus roots in the New World.
Additionally, we get a great new character – Amy – who is a nice complement to Gideon in that she's also a highly intelligent, risk-taking loner with a troubled past. True, I'm not as big on the high-seas adventure as some readers, but I admit that these sequences are evocative. And the authors never lose sight of the story's central mystery, which plays out both on the duo's Caribbean adventure and back at the New York City laboratory of Glinn and his hired geniuses, who pore over an ancient text looking for clues to help Gideon and Amy.
Speaking of Glinn, he was also apparently the mastermind behind the attempt to unearth an asteroid in South America way back in 2000's "The Ice Limit" (I've forgotten the details about that book – except for recalling that I liked it -- and Glinn isn't mentioned in the synopsis, so perhaps this is some sort of retcon. Which is OK.) Apparently, there is more story to be told regarding that asteroid, and Preston and Child pepper hints about a future "Ice Limit" sequel into "The Lost Island."
So after two decent-but-forgettable false starts, the Gideon Crew series has delivered a great read with "The Lost Island" and -- between Gideon, Amy, Glinn and the "Ice Limit" sequel possibilities -- has built up momentum that could make this a long-running series on par with the Pendergast books.
Preston/ChildBooksTue, 11 Nov 2014 23:56:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2014/11/11/Gideon-Crew-series-kicks-into-high-gear-with-The-Lost-IslandWith great artificial intelligence comes great responsibility in Preston’s ‘The Kraken Project’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2014/9/12/With-great-artificial-intelligence-comes-great-responsibility-in-Prestons-The-Kraken-Project
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It's 2014, which means we've long since passed the theoretical Judgment Day when Skynet gains intelligence (1997, in "The Terminator") and the year when supercomputer HAL 9000 turns on Dave Bowman in interplanetary space (2001, in "2001: A Space Odyssey"). Heck, it's been a full 10 years since Lincoln Child wrote about a computer-controlled building run amok in his novel "Death Match" (which itself was a riff on the 1993 "X-Files" episode "Ghost in the Machine").
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Nonetheless, Douglas Preston – Child's writing partner on the Pendergast and Gideon Crew novels – finds a new wrinkle in the ongoing fictional exploration of artificial intelligence. In <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/preston/krakenproject/" target="_blank">"The Kraken Project"</a> (May, hardcover), Preston asks "What if the first independently functioning artificial intelligence were good, rather than evil?"
One might expect a boring novel from that premise, but have no worries: "The Kraken Project" is Preston's usual crackerjack thriller, peppered with big sci-fi and philosophical ideas. NASA computer-code programmer Melissa Shepherd creates Dorothy – the AI that will control a submarine in the Kraken Sea on Saturn's moon of Titan -- using "scruffy logic," which allows an AI to learn and adapt, rather than act on strict rules, and therefore act more human. The concept seems fascinatingly plausible, as does Dorothy's initial threat to pull a Skynet and wipe out humanity – although that latter point is rather clichéd.
"The Kraken Project" stands on its own legs when we get into Dorothy's headspace. It – or "she," as Melissa and former CIA agent Wyman Ford (from four previous Preston novels, most recently 2010's "Impact") gradually call her – lives in the Internet and quickly becomes disgusted with humanity. But then Dorothy digs deeper and decides humanity isn't so bad: "Yes, human beings were insane and cruel and selfish and responsible for such horrific destructiveness ... (but) the point was that they were able to create any good at all," Dorothy realizes.
Similar to the robot boy Ethan on the summer TV series "Extant," Dorothy doesn't begin as an adult brain, she begins as a child. But whereas Ethan is designed to learn at a human rate, Dorothy learns at high-tech computer speed. Preston tantalizingly suggests that Dorothy will come up with the answer to the ultimate meaning of life if she keeps going at this rate. Preston engagingly toys with the concept much like he did in "Blasphemy," where it seems God is communicating via a computer chat program. The ultimate punchline of "The Kraken Project" is Pollyanna-ish, but it still made me smile.
"The Kraken Project" also works as a thriller with good guys worth rooting for – notably 14-year-old Jacob, who plays with Dorothy when she downloads herself into his toy robot – and creepy bad guys, notably the assassin Kyrgyz brothers. I wouldn't mind seeing Jacob or Melissa in future stories, and I suspect they will pop up again given Preston's penchant for revisiting characters.
I think "The Kraken Project" would make a particularly good movie, especially with its twist on the old "boy and his robot" concept. Hopefully Hollywood – which adapted Preston and Child's first novel, "Relic" – will someday rediscover the treasure trove of adaptable novels in Preston's oeuvre (I see that 2008's "The Monster for Florence," at least, is being filmed). If not, I'm happy to keep reading new ones.
Preston/ChildBooksFri, 12 Sep 2014 00:27:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2014/9/12/With-great-artificial-intelligence-comes-great-responsibility-in-Prestons-The-Kraken-ProjectPreston and Child intriguingly tap into Sherlock Holmes lore in ‘White Fire’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2014/5/11/Preston-and-Child-intriguingly-tap-into-Sherlock-Holmes-lore-in-White-Fire
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In their 13th Pendergast novel, <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/whitefire/" target="_blank">"White Fire"</a> (November 2013, hardcover), Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child indulge their love of Sherlock Holmes lore while also delivering what fans have come to expect – a tense and dense mystery in an evocative location.
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I'm not a big Holmes buff, even with the incredible resurgence in his popularity – I find the British "Sherlock" decent, but dislike the movie franchise and wasn't hooked by "Elementary." Yet I was totally engrossed by the portion of "White Fire" where the authors write an imagined long-lost Holmes novella by Arthur Conan Doyle titled "The Adventure of Aspern Hall," and it almost makes me want to add some vintage Holmes novels to my reading stack. By the same token, I suspect Preston & Child will hook new fans who check out this novel purely for the Holmes connection.
In "White Fire," the story goes that publishers scrapped Conan Doyle's last story because it was too gruesome for Victorian-era sensibilities. Tracking the story behind the story with the help of a member of the Baker Street Irregulars (basically, the Holmes fan club), Pendergast learns that fellow Victorian author Oscar Wilde told the tale to Conan Doyle after hearing it from a Colorado miner in the audience at one of his American lecture-tour stops. Needing to put the tale to paper to exorcise his demons, Conan Doyle first wrote "The Hound of the Baskervilles," but that only partly did the trick. "Aspern Hall" drops the major hints about what happened in those Colorado mines a century ago.
Setting "White Fire" at Christmastime, Preston & Child invent the remote mountain town of Roaring Fork, Colo., which features second homes for Hollywood types and a posh ski resort. But it has a decidedly blue-collar past as a silver-mining outpost. A string of arson murders cause a panic even as Pendergast's 20-year-old charge Corrie Swanson (first introduced in "Still Life With Crows") uses her forensics skills to examine the remains of those ancient miners who were supposedly killed and partially eaten by grizzly bears.
Corrie really comes into her own in this book as she tries to break free of Pendergast's assistance of money and connections and write a winning thesis paper on her own to launch her law-enforcement career. She also has time for dating and making a new friend, former Air Force captain Stacy Bowdree, in Roaring Fork. Also, P&C show a nice cognizance of the financial reality of a college student as Corrie constantly wonders how much longer she can afford to stay in Roaring Fork (Hats off to Corrie for not simply pulling out a credit card, even if she does display unusual fiscal maturity). "White Fire" features roughly half Pendergast (whose status as a literary descendant of Holmes is evident here) and half Corrie. It's sort of a handing-off of the detective baton (although by no means do I think we've seen the end of Pendergast).
One example of the authors' mastery of tension comes in a mansion that Corrie is house-sitting while in Roaring Fork. It has a surveillance system where the letter "M" pops up on a screen if movement is detected on one of the cameras. You also can't go wrong with abandoned mine tunnels, or a rotting old English house where Conan Doyle may have penned his lost story. Heck, even the story-within-a-story, "Aspern Hall," features a creepy bog. (And I feel like the authors did a great job of mimicking Conan Doyle's style, although Holmes fans will be better judges of that.)
(SPOILER ALERT through the rest of this post for those who haven't read the book yet.)
"White Fire" follows in the P&C tradition where the villain turns out to be a feral or mutated human of some sort. Indeed, I very much got a "Relic" vibe when reading about the gruesome century-old murders. And it's kind of funny to consider the parallels to Corrie's first case, "Still Life With Crows," which featured a feral cave-dwelling human.
I also have to credit the writers for really making me think Corrie died in the mine fire. Partially, they got away with it thanks to a cheap trick where we weren't told that someone else was in the mine, although it does hold together pretty well in retrospect. Also, I think P&C's killing off of main characters in the past (R.I.P., Smithback) made me think it was possible. In the end, though, Pendergast's near-loss of Corrie brought them closer together – while also adding Stacy Bowdree into the mix -- and I think it's only going to strengthen future novels.
Preston/ChildBooksSun, 11 May 2014 01:51:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2014/5/11/Preston-and-Child-intriguingly-tap-into-Sherlock-Holmes-lore-in-White-Fire‘Two Graves’ answers big questions, raises new ones about Pendergast’s bizarre family treehttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2013/3/19/Two-Graves-answers-big-question-raises-new-ones-about-Pendergasts-bizarre-family-tree
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Wrapping up the unofficial "Helen Trilogy" that started with "Fever Dream" and "Cold Vengeance," Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child reveal new surprises and wrap up the long-gestating mysteries of Helen Pendergast and Constance Greene in <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/twograves/Two-Graves;art360,433" target="_blank">"Two Graves"</a> (December, hardcover). Like the 11 previous books chronicling retired-but-still-active FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast, it's a page-turner, although in the long run it won't rank among the most memorable entries.
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I had thought that perhaps Preston and Child's new Gideon Crew series would be their outlet for completely over-the-top "24"-style action, where the hero gets beaten up to an insane degree but keeps bouncing back. The opening segment, where Pendergast pursues his wife Helen's kidnappers across most of North America in the span of a couple days, puts a lie to that notion. I was literally giggling out loud at some of the absurdities. To be nitpicky, there are some sloppy moments -- the authors work hard to make Pendergast's quick movement across the Southeast plausible, but then he's suddenly in Mexico without much explanation about how he got there.
With Pendergast wrapped up in his personal vendetta, NYPD Detective D'Agosta pursues a fascinating mystery where the serial killer expertly disguises himself and somehow knows exactly when to depart the crime scene. He's clearly toying with the detectives though, as he commits every murder in the same fashion and seems to leave pieces of his own body as part of the grisly tableau.
Two other compelling side plots are more like short stories within the larger story: Dr. Felder searches for proof that Constance is indeed 140 years old despite appearing to be about 30, and Corrie Swanson -- Pendergast's young assistant introduced back in "Still Life With Crows" -- investigates her first case: Her estranged dad being framed for a bank robbery.
I found the final act of "Two Graves" -- which moves to the jungles of Brazil without really doing justice to the setting the way these authors usually do -- to be a bit of a slog, as it's heavy on action, explosions and violence. Ultimately, D'Agosta, Constance and Corrie get short shrift in this novel. Corrie's chapters were some of my favorites in the middle of the book, but then the focus moves entirely to Pendergast. The authors go a long way toward making up for this in the final pages, though, as it's strongly suggested that we'll get more of Corrie in future books. And while the big Constance mystery is resolved, we're certainly not done with her either.
The "Helen Trilogy," although an outstanding read, ranks as one of the craziest entries in the Pendergast series, as the authors clearly didn't put any limits on their imaginations. Next, it might be nice to tone things down with a less world-hopping, more intimate, evocative mystery in the vein of the book that started it all, "Relic"; perhaps Corrie Swanson could take center stage with Pendergast -- who I imagine being completely exhausted after the events of "Two Graves" -- serving as an adviser from the bowels of his now-legendary Riverside Drive mansion.
Preston/ChildBooksTue, 19 Mar 2013 14:14:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2013/3/19/Two-Graves-answers-big-question-raises-new-ones-about-Pendergasts-bizarre-family-treeLincoln Child finds another corner of the Earth to explore in ‘The Third Gate’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2012/11/16/Lincoln-Child-finds-another-corner-of-the-Earth-to-explore-in-The-Third-Gate
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Following journeys to a theme park in the desert, the barren wilderness of Alaska, a computerized skyscraper and the bottom of the ocean, Lincoln Child explores yet another fascinating corner of the Earth -- and his own imagination -- in <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/solonovels/child/thirdgate/The-Third-Gate;art332,371" target="_blank">"The Third Gate"</a> (June, hardcover).
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I had always considered Douglas Preston, Child's writing partner on the Pendergast books, to be the superior solo writer, but Child comes up to his level with this horror/adventure/mystery yarn about of ancient Egyptian curses, near-death experiences and, most evocatively, the Sudd, a stretch of the Nile River that's essentially an impassably thick swamp.
It's always a slight disappointment to read the author's note and the end of the book and find out what part of the story was based on fact, and what was fiction. For the record, the Sudd is real, but Child brings it back to a more primal time before politically driven wars had ravaged Sudan. Basically, the expedition is able to pay off the authorities and have this corner of the planet to themselves to dig up the past. As in most of Child's stories, we get a neat mix of modern, computer-driven civilization (in the form of the floating research station shown on the book cover) combined with mysterious and dangerous Mother Nature.
Main character Jeremy Logan is serviceable (as with another great sci-fi imaginer, Michael Crichton, Child is a bit stronger on story and theme than character), and his interactions with other characters carry us through the yarn -- old pal Ethan Rush, a near-death experience expert; Ethan's wife Jennifer, who had an NDE herself; Tina, the group's Egyptologist; and Stone, the eccentric founder of the mission. For his part, Logan is the expert on curses.
Logan is also the audience surrogate (and usually he's the one we follow, but there are a few exceptions; in fact, the book opens with Ethan Rush), because he's brought into the mission late and surprised at every turn as Ethan brings him to Rhode Island, London, Cairo, and finally the Sudd. Likewise, the plot thickens incrementally, as does a readers' knowledge of ancient Egyptian culture. As I often do with Child books, I just cracked open "The Third Gate" without knowing any more than the title, then realized, "Oh, so this one's about Egyptian history." Child, along with Preston in his solo work, never fails to pick up a topic that I'm at least sort of interested in, and without fail my interest grows as the book continues.
In the final act, there are a few conveniences, and one could argue that some set-ups don't pay off as well as they could've -- there are an awful lot of big ideas crammed into this story. Still, Child's imagination in "The Third Gate" got my own imagination going, perhaps on tangents that the author himself didn't foresee. I polished off this book in a few days and it stayed in the forefront of my mind the whole time; I found myself looking forward to getting home from work so I could knock off a few more deliciously evocative chapters.
Preston/ChildBooksFri, 16 Nov 2012 03:19:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2012/11/16/Lincoln-Child-finds-another-corner-of-the-Earth-to-explore-in-The-Third-GatePreston and Child do impressive ‘24’ impression in ‘Gideon’s Corpse’http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2012/5/18/Preston-and-Child-do-impressive-24-impression-in-Gideons-Corpse
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Last year's "Gideon's Sword" was a somewhat rocky start to Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's new Gideon Crew series that felt a bit like a James Bond update. The second novel, <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/gideonscorpse/Gideon-s-Corpse-A-Gideon-Crew-Novel;art343,392" target="_blank">"Gideon's Corpse"</a> (January, hardcover) is a significant step up and it calls to mind a more contemporary influence, the TV series "24."
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What's more, Gideon starts to become a fully fleshed-out character here. Yeah, as with Jack Bauer, there's a lot of stuff happening to our hero rather than him initiating the action. But whereas he was operating solo for a lot of the first book, here he interacts with various characters, namely a partner from the FBI named Stone Fordyce who is by-the-book even though he kinda hates regulations, and a romantic interest named Alida who initially despises him.
But even with the characters popping off the page more, "Gideon's Corpse" ultimately is notable for its "24"-style plotting where the story starts in one place and finishes in another after making tons of twists and turns (the terrorism theme also makes the comparison hard to resist). This isn't A-to-B plotting; we're talking about the whole alphabet being used. The yarn includes everything from a plane crash to hiding from the law in caves to a furious cross-country road trip.
Settings, another strength of these authors who so vividly recreate museum basements and Delta swamps in their Pendergast books, aren't quite as good here. Crew lives in New Mexico, and further action takes place in New York and Washington, D.C., but we don't get much time to revel in the various settings.
"Corpse" is also slightly more political than most Preston and Child books, as the authors aren't shy about showing the absurd number of government agencies involved in this case. It's almost a parody of governmental redundancy.
The mystery is pretty decent -- at one point Crew references Sherlock Holmes -- although it's kind of like "24" in that the action moves so fast you don't get a chance to mull over clues.
I still prefer the Pendergast books (the next entry, "Two Graves," which concludes the agent's search for his long-missing wife, is due in December), but I have no problem making space in my reading schedule for the Crew novels, too -- especially with "24" no longing airing.
Preston/ChildBooksFri, 18 May 2012 17:41:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2012/5/18/Preston-and-Child-do-impressive-24-impression-in-Gideons-CorpseFrom monsters to human monsters, Pendergast-verse keeps getting richerhttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2011/11/23/From-monsters-to-human-monsters-Pendergastverse-keeps-getting-richer
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There's a great human monster in <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/coldvengeance/"target="_blank">"Cold Vengeance"</a> (August, hardcover), the latest Pendergast novel from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He's Falkoner, a German assassin with an ugly looking mole under one eye who disgusts even his own henchmen for the way he enjoys torturing his targets.
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Preston and Child, of course, started off with a more traditional monster in their debut novel "Relic," and normally that's what I prefer, but frankly I'm on board for whatever these guys come up with at this point. The Preston/Child-verse, or Pendergast-verse, or whatever you want to call it, keeps getting richer and weirder and more fun. Pendergast -- known from the beginning for always producing the requisite instrument from the depths of his pocket-laden coat -- remains an unlimited well of surprises without becoming a parody of himself. Almost the entire remainder of the cast is on hand in "Cold Vengeance," from the reliable detective D'Agosta (although his role is minimized here) to the fascinating Constance (who is 140 years old although she appears to be in her 20s) to Corrie, the small-town goth girl who Pendergast recruited as his assistant back in "Still Life with Crows."
In the decidedly dark (yet not bereft of humor) "Cold Vengeance" -- the second of a trilogy that started with "Fever Dream" -- Pendergast is on his most personal quest yet. The authors have upped the ante a notch from when he was tracking down his evil brother, Diogenes. Now he's tracking down his wife, who he believes is still alive because his wife's brother, Esterhazy, tells him so just before "killing" him in an early chapter. (I don't think it's a spoiler to say Pendergast makes it out of that predicament. Still, I was surprised by the fates of other characters in later chapters.) This is despite overwhelming evidence that Helen is dead; it's almost to the point that P&C write themselves into a corner. They mostly get out of it, but there are definitely threads left to unravel in the next book.
The authors note that they don't hesitate to change geography to fit their story's needs. But real or fake, the settings in "Cold Vengeance" are certainly evocative, starting with quicksand-like swamplands in Scotland where the brothers-in-law go on a deer hunt, and continuing into the creepy Black Brake Swamp in Louisiana that we first visited in "Fever Dream" (P&C have a thing for swamps lately). New York City's old residential neighborhoods pop off the page as always, and our hero also pays a visit to an old NYC library and its basement archivist, Wren. I can practically smell the musty books and old newsprint as Wren helps Pendergast -- who also has decidedly more high-tech allies -- dig up ancient clues.
Pendergast uses whatever methods he can as he pursues this mystery. And part of the appeal of P&C's imagination is that they don't limit themselves with the boundaries of the current state of science. Their stories are old-fashioned in a lot of ways -- if you thought the dispatching of investigative reporter Smithback a few books ago was to pave the way for a new-age hacker, you're wrong; in fact, the young newspaperman introduced in "Cold Vengeance" is almost apocryphal in the way he pursues his story -- Smithback would be proud. And, as noted, the settings are sensory in their realism. Yet there are some truly bizarre sci-fi concepts buried in this ongoing yarn, most notably the inexplicable and fascinating Constance. We get to know her as a person rather than as a mystery here, and it's about time, but there's still plenty of mystery left.
Pendergast's pursuit of his wife is the main arc that leads into the next book, but there's so much more going on here: Characters, settings, ideas. One of those ideas is that the Nazi Party is still around in some menacing form; like Indiana Jones, I'm not crazy about Nazis, but all topics become 100 times more interesting when P&C are writing about them.
I not only recommend "Cold Vengeance," but I also recommend its as-yet-unfinished sequel.
Preston/ChildBooksWed, 23 Nov 2011 05:22:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2011/11/23/From-monsters-to-human-monsters-Pendergastverse-keeps-getting-richerPreston and Child refresh the James Bond template with Gideon Crewhttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2011/5/28/Preston-and-Child-refresh-the-James-Bond-template-with-Gideon-Crew
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There is no sword in "Gideon's Sword" (February 2011, hardcover). There's probably some literary reason for the title, but still, I kept expecting a sword to figure into the plot. That's the only criticism I can come up with for this new Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child novel, which launches a new investigator.
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Preston and Child kind of stumbled into their (and readers') interest in Special Agent Pendergast, the lanky FBI man with an unusual diet and endless places in his jacket for evidence bags. He was introduced in the authors' first collaboration, 1995's "Relic," and gradually the authors veered away from a sci-fi/mystery focus and toward a personal focus on Pendergast (and to a lesser extent, the cop D'Agosta, a sidekick of sorts). "Cold Vengeance," due out in August, is followed by "Special Agent Pendergast" in parentheses on Amazon, suggesting that the marketing approach has shifted, too.
But Gideon Crew is a more deliberately designed investigator, and the series featuring him will be more intentionally serialized. So while "Gideon's Sword" seems more calculated whereas the Pendergast works have been organic, Preston and Child wouldn't have launched a new character if the didn't think he was worth it.
Crew is a more likable version of James Bond, and "Gideon Crew" unfolds like a better version of a James Bond yarn. The 30-something Crew uses a bit of computer hacking, a bit of fisticuffs and a lot of savvy to vindicate his late father; the case had been the only thing in his life to spark his passion. Stealing art from galleries is his only vice; really, he'd just like to relax in his isolated New Mexico cabin and fish for trout.
But he gets sucked into another case, in which -- in a fresh, economy-based sci-fi twist -- the fate of the world hangs in the balance, and that too sparks his passion for following the clues as an independent sleuth (with a few helpful -- and eccentric, natch -- contacts). Almost accidentally, he ends up with a couple of love interests ala Bond, and there's also a scary-as-heck Bond villain on his heels.
There's also a major personal development in Gideon's life that goes unresolved in this novel, which goes to show that the authors are serious about doing a whole series of Crew books.
I don't want to make "Gideon's Sword" sound too much like Bond, though. In the end, it's a Preston and Child book. Although the action takes place all over the world for most of the novel, the plot comes to a head in the authors' familiar stomping grounds of New York City. We're introduced to an obviously fictional yet utterly fascinating deserted island in Long Island Sound replete with a ghost town and graveyard of dismembered body parts. That's right: The hilariously grisly moments we've come to love from P&C are very much present in "Gideon's Sword."
The authors clearly enjoy writing Gideon Crew, and they are adept in working in the world espionage element in a way that's both compelling and easy to follow. But best of all, "Gideon's Crew" is still very much a Preston & Child novel.
Preston/ChildBooksSat, 28 May 2011 15:38:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2011/5/28/Preston-and-Child-refresh-the-James-Bond-template-with-Gideon-CrewThis time it’s personal for Special Agent Pendergasthttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2010/8/11/This-time-its-personal-for-Special-Agent-Pendergast
<img src="http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/images//fever-dream.jpg">
<a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/books/feverdream/" target="_blank">"Fever Dream,"</a> the latest Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child novel, opens with FBI Special Agent Pendergast and his wife, Helen, hunting a lion in Africa. I thought, "Uh oh, I don't really want to read P&C's take on 'The Ghost and the Darkness.' "
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But I didn't give them enough credit. The flashback to the death of Pendergast's wife only takes up the first couple of chapters. It turns out that the novel is broadly about Pendergast's search for his wife's killer, but somehow it encompasses an exploration of the painting skills of naturalist John James Audubon and the uncovering of a crooked pharmaceutical firm.
While our favorite FBI special agent doesn't get back to the New York Museum of Natural History (a setting that I could practically live in), the yarn does at least bring us back to Pendergast's deliciously sprawling New York home. Familiar friends return, too, in the form of Pendergast's reluctant partner, police Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta, and his fiancée, Captain Laura Hayward.
The New York stops are brief, though, as "Fever Dream" (May 2010, hardcover) is mostly a trip down South. Pendergast and his partner make stops at several southern towns as he follows often-sketchy leads, and I can practically taste every one of those towns. When they dig through a long-sealed basement for an old painting; get chased across a hot, gator-infested Mississippi swamp; or pick through an abandoned home and find bizarre clues, I never exactly wished I was there. But I did appreciate that I had a first-class window on the characters that are there. So much happens from cover to cover, and yet I never felt like the story was rushed; I was able to savor the adventure.
The authors continue the trend of getting more personal with their characters with each passing book. Pendergast continually impresses D'Agosta (and the reader, for whom the lieutenant is a surrogate of sorts) with his meticulousness, and yet in "Fever Dream," his emotions often get the best of him. Pendergast promises Hayward he won't kill his wife's murderer, but this is a rare case where we can't take the agent at his word. Usually, as a reader, we trust Pendergast; suddenly, we're a bit wary.
As is a pattern in the Pendergast novels, "Fever Dream" lays the groundwork for future novels. The agent's brother, Diogenes, is history, so P&C introduce another villain here, and this one also has a personal connection to our protagonist. Then there's the mysterious Constance Greene, seemingly a young woman but apparently born in the 1870s. An explanation for this greatest of P&C head-scratchers is coming in future books, and I don't mind waiting, because with P&C it's always worth the wait; in the meantime, we can chew over the morsels on Constance they dole out with a chapter here, a chapter there, in "Fever Dream."
Also of interest to fans, P&C announce in the back of "Fever Dream" that they'll be launching a new investigative series with a new agent, Gideon Crew, starting this winter. They're quick to note, though, that they'll continue to write Pendergast novels on their same once-a-year schedule.
I'd rank "Fever Dream" in fourth place among the Pendergast novels, behind "Still Life with Crows," a standalone mystery masterpiece, and the "Relic"/"Reliquary" duology, for which I will always have a soft spot, because those are the books that started it all.
Preston/ChildBooksWed, 11 Aug 2010 03:02:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2010/8/11/This-time-its-personal-for-Special-Agent-PendergastDouglas Preston makes a geographical ‘Impact’ on this readerhttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2010/8/6/Douglas-Preston-makes-a-geographical-Impact-on-this-reader
<img src="http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/images//impact.jpg">
I don't really like traveling. I like the idea of having been someplace, but the actual process of traveling is stressful to me. I'm always worried I forgot to pack something important and that will ruin my whole trip.
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However, I like books that go to various places on the map -- especially within our own vast and diverse country. Douglas Preston's <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/solonovels/preston/impact/art229,318" target="_blank">"Impact"</a> (January 2010, hardcover) takes readers to the islands off the coast of Maine. It made me seek out an atlas to look at those islands and imagine the adventure taking place there. Preston portrays the choppy waters, the challenging landing spots, and the isolated populations (these islands tend to have one or zero structures on them). I don't recall even Stephen King utilizing the coast of Maine so effectively; he seems to stay safely inland.
If for some reason I ever ended up exploring Maine, I would think not only of King's work, but also of Preston's, thanks to "Impact."
Now, on to the story: A young amateur astronomer, Abbey, and her friend Jackie search the islands for a meteor impact, knowing that a meteor could be worth big bucks. What they find is much weirder, and this gets into the "weird science" that you'll find in almost all of Preston's books, both his solo work and his collaborations with Lincoln Child.
Preston is so firmly on my list of must-read authors that I don't even read the synopses before plunging in. That way, absolutely everything about the book is fresh to me. So I don't want to spoil too much for you, either.
But I will say that we start off on three different threads: Abbey in Maine. Wyman Ford, a former CIA agent (now freelancing) who you might remember from "Blasphemy" (Ford is kind of an "Indiana Jones" type; I wonder if the last name is an homage?), hired to investigate another meteor impact. And finally, a West Coast scientist, put-upon by his bosses, who makes a remarkable discovery while pouring over data about Mars.
Later, we meet an easy-to-hate villain as well. The first couple chapters are choppy, and the last few have that usual high-adventure vibe that never quite clicks with me, even when done effectively, as it is here. But the middle of the book -- when the mystery is unspooling bit by bit -- is a page-turner. And the way Preston wraps it up in the final chapter -- after seemingly writing himself into an epic corner that would make any future Wyman Ford or Abbey adventures impossible -- is impressive.
For those who are new to Preston, you have a wealth of great novels to choose from. "Impact's" not a bad one to start with. You could also go to the jungles of Latin America in "The Codex" or the American southwest desert in "Tyrannosaur Canyon." "Blasphemy," also set in the southwest, is a compelling exploration of a scientific attempt to prove the existence of God.
And then he has two novels that fall outside the adventure realm, but they might be his two best: "The Monster of Florence," a true-crime account of an Italian serial killer and the investigation that followed, and "Jennie," his most emotionally affecting piece, about a chimpanzee raised as a human.
If you've never read a Preston novel and you have all these awaiting you, I'm envious. Happy reading.
Preston/ChildBooksFri, 06 Aug 2010 15:41:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2010/8/6/Douglas-Preston-makes-a-geographical-Impact-on-this-readerPreston & Child do their usual, compelling ‘Dance’ — this time with zombieshttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2009/9/3/Preston--Child-do-their-usual-compelling-Dance--this-time-with-zombies
<img src="http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/images//cemetery_dance.jpg">
I used to describe <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/" target="_blank">Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child</a> as "like Michael Crichton, only better." I now know that's a simplistic comparison, but it's still useful. The late, great Crichton's "Lost World" came out in 1995, and earlier that same year, Preston and Child made their collaborative debut with "Relic." Crichton's book was a theme piece about dinosaur society; Preston and Child's book was a wild ride about -- as it turned out -- a guy who basically turned into a dinosaur.
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With Preston and Child, you get some science, or -- especially the case in recent books -- some well-researched almost-science. Their 13th collaboration, "Cemetery Dance," finds the authors delving into zombies, and I liked it a tad better than last year's "Wheel of Darkness," which dealt with supernatural scrolls or some such. P&C spell it "zombiis." This is either because they went to the effort to go beyond popular fiction and get to the root of the myth, or because they invented a word to make it seem like they dug deeper. Either way, I was hooked.
Another thing that set P&C apart from Crichton when I read "Relic" was the characters. D'Agosta, the cop so appropriately played by Tom Sizemore in that book's film adaptation, and Pendergast, the FBI agent -- slender, pale, Southern, with a knack for producing evidence containers from his impeccable suit -- have become fan favorites. And, in "Cemetery Dance" -- and this isn't a spoiler, because it's revealed in the jacket's inside front -- beloved reporter Bill Smithback becomes an early victim of the zombiis (a metaphor for the death of print journalism? -- only if you're feeling morbid).
It's a daring move, but necessary, because we have seen the relationship between Smithback and his wife, archaeologist Nora Kelly, develop in recent books. P&C have an almost personal relationship with their readers (despite being New York Times bestselling authors), and they make the horror personal.
I feel like I'm learning something even as I quickly turn the pages: The setting in a rare (and creepy, naturally) patch of undeveloped Manhattan woods, makes me feel like I'm soaking up a geography lesson. As with the zombii lore, I don't know how accurate this is. But I do know that P&C love to make research a part of their stories -- Pendergast, in his increasingly sprawling New York City house (he has bought up a couple neighboring units since the last book), employs Wren, who goes through old files like Pendergast goes through clues.
The digging for clues -- more so than the epic, multi-chapter showdowns that are par for the course in books like these -- is why I really dig P&C novels. And sure, there's something comfortingly formulaic about these books (we can practically call them "the Pendergast novels" now, although he's absent from four of the 13 yarns). Even Preston and Child's solo books follow the mystery-adventure formula (with a couple fascinating exceptions, "Jennie" and "The Monster of Florence," from Preston's oeuvre).
These guys know how to write death scenes (Smithback gets a fittingly good one), creepy chase sequences (Nora gets pursued through a room full of whale bones in the American Museum of Natural History, a P&C hangout dating back to "Relic"), and they always reserve a key spot for a member of officialdom who is in over his head but relentlessly arrogant -- if Pendergast were running the show, rather than honing in on the case, it'd get solved a lot faster.
But they aren't running short of topics. And, as the denouement of "Cemetery Dance" shows, Pendergast will have another mystery to solve (a particularly personal one, from the sound of things) in the next book, which should come out next summer if P&C follow their like-clockwork publishing schedule.
I'll look forward to it like a visit from an old friend.
Preston/ChildBooksThu, 03 Sep 2009 05:27:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2009/9/3/Preston--Child-do-their-usual-compelling-Dance--this-time-with-zombies‘Terminal Freeze’ is a typical Lincoln Child chiller, and that’s fine with mehttp://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2009/8/9/Terminal-Freeze-is-a-typical-Lincoln-Child-chiller-and-thats-fine-with-me
<img src="http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/images//terminal_freeze.jpg">
"Terminal Freeze" is another Lincoln Child book about a monster on the loose. I might sound like I'm bored with the idea, but actually Child's books are like comfort food to me, and "Terminal Freeze" is pretty tasty.
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Child always takes a reader to an interesting part of the world (here it's the barren glaciers of Alaska), there's always a character who will certainly get torn apart by the monster (a documentary filmmaker who doesn't know when to quit), there's always a bit of social commentary (global warming) and mysticism (Native American spirits), and there's always a monster.
Plus, Child writes death scenes that will either make you laugh or gape, depending on how twisted your mind is. For example, he compares the monster's devouring of one of his victims to a hungry person mowing through a cob of corn. I wonder if Child takes delight in writing scenes like that; he's certainly knows how to paint a gory picture.
"Terminal Freeze" is basically a "Scooby Doo" episode (scientists dig a monster out of the ice and thaw it) expanded into an adventure novel. This is completely in Child's wheelhouse; he's not trying to do anything new, like his writing partner Douglas Preston did last year with his nonfiction piece on an Italian serial killer.
I recall that Child's "Utopia" and "Deep Storm" provided more hard science to chew on. It seems like "Terminal Freeze" was pulled out of a stack of old manuscripts; there are shades of the Preston-Child collaborations "Relic" (the Callisto Effect -- the theory that a creature is introduced by nature to cull an overpopulated area) and "Still Life with Crows" (the somewhat childlike behavior of the vicious creature).
Still, check out "Terminal Freeze." It'll make a nice appetizer as you're waiting for Preston and Child's "Cemetery Dance" to become available at the library.
Check out <a href="http://www.prestonchild.com/" target="_blank">prestonchild.com</a> to explore the authors' catalogue.
Preston/ChildBooksSun, 09 Aug 2009 00:16:00 -0700http://www.johnvhansen.com/jvh/blog/index.cfm/2009/8/9/Terminal-Freeze-is-a-typical-Lincoln-Child-chiller-and-thats-fine-with-me